Catalunya MotoGP: Rossi ‘very happy’ to be back on top

Valentino Rossi returned to the top of the MotoGP timesheets for the first time since re-joining Yamaha by leading Friday practice for the Grand Prix of Catalunya.

Fourth quickest in the morning, Rossi leapt from eighth to first in the closing stages of a scorching afternoon session, displacing team-mate and home hero Jorge Lorenzo by 0.049s.

“I'm very happy about the result,” said Rossi, speaking in the Yamaha hospitality. “Me and my team know it is just Friday, but we are so happy - to be in front is a great feeling.

“In recent races we improved my performance in practice. Already Mugello was good on Friday, but to be in first position here is another feeling, another taste.

“But for sure it is just Friday. We still need to improve and there are some parts of the racetrack where we can do better, especially section one and three. But I am very, very fast in section two and especially section four. I am so happy about this.

“It will be important to start the race in a good position, but especially make the right tyre choice and have a good setting to keep a good rhythm. It is difficult to decide [which rear tyre is better for the race].”

The Yamaha team-mates split tyre testing duties on Friday: Rossi spending much of the afternoon on the harder option, before setting his best lap on the softer rear.

“I did a lot of laps on the hard tyre this afternoon, then switched to the soft just at the end. Jorge did the opposite, did all the practice with the soft,” Rossi explained.

“We did this first to get a lot of information on the hard tyre and second to practice for qualifying tomorrow,” added Rossi, who has struggled with the new qualifying format and been left on the third row for all but one of the 2013 races.

Join
the conversation - Add your comment

Although the administrators and moderators of this website will attempt to keep all objectionable comments off these pages, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the poster, and neither Crash Media Group nor Crash.Net will be held responsible for the content of any message. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. If you find a message objectionable, please contact us and inform us of the problem or use the [report] function next to the offending post. Any message that does not conform with the policy of this service can be edited or removed with immediate effect.